Thousands descended on Kelowna’s downtown to take in Canada’s 156th birthday celebration on Saturday, and RCMP say the crowd was “well behaved.”
“There were no real massive concerns, everything kind of went as smooth as it could have gone,” said Kelowna RCMP Const. Mike Della-Paolera.
“It was a pretty tame night in my opinion.”
Several arrests were made, but Della-Paolera said that’s not out of the ordinary for a crowd of that size.
“We made multiple arrests, but it was mostly causing a disturbance, people that were too intoxicated to be down there any longer, and a lot of youth were turned over to their parents…we also had one assault/fight that investigators will look into today,” he said.
Around 60,000 people were expected to go to Kelowna’s downtown core for the festivities. Police prepared well ahead of time by adding additional support on the ground and the lake.
“I think the large presence of the RCMP really helped us, and people really appreciated us being there – it was a good crowd,” he said.
“We had over 40 additional officers here for the weekend.”
Just before 8 p.m., as hundreds enjoyed live music at Kelowna’s Island Stage near Tugboat Beach, Festivals Kelowna announced that the fireworks show had been cancelled, but no formal announcement was made on social media by either Festivals Kelowna or the city, causing confusion for some.
“It was the city’s decision to cancel the fireworks, and we were all kind of expecting it with the weather and the fire on Knox Mountain didn’t exactly help,” said Della-Paolera.
“We just decided that the best thing we could do as police officers, was go around and talk to people –spread the word.”
Despite being the bearers of bad news, Della-Paolera said the crowd was very understanding given the situation.
“Nobody was giving us pushback or got angry with us. The fire in a way helped us because people realized how volatile it was,” said Della-Paolera.
“I’ve been in situations where it goes the complete opposite way, but everybody was just having a good time.”
Global News reached out to the City of Kelowna and Festivals Kelowna, but they did not get back to us in time for publication.